Monday, December 19, 2011

Harald

Harald and I met in June of 2000, when we both went to Estonia as new Peace Corps volunteers. He walked around with a red backpack constantly and I noticed his wry wit and sense of humor. We became friends very early on and have been to this day. Harald has, until recently lived in Northern New York. He is a carpenter and has been building his own house in the woods. My favorite picture of his progress is him standing at the bottom of the outhouse, his head sticking out of the toilet. Harald has also lived in Norway and in the Czech Republic among other places.

This is Harald, in Kuressare, the town I lived in on the Island of Saaremaa when we were in the Peace Corps. Harald lived on the other Estonian island of Hiiumaa. We constantly argued over who lived on "the other island". During that trip to visit me, we went grocery shopping. I picked up a container of eggs. Harald sidled up to me and grinned. "Don't put all those in one basket." He said.

Local youth grafitti

Harald is a man with an incredible sense of humor, and a great love for women. He loves women's music, women's art and women in general. Here is is surrounded by many of his closest Peace Corps friends. (Not that he had much of a choice. Our group of 19 volunteers, in the end, was comprised only two men.
﻿﻿

﻿﻿
﻿﻿

﻿﻿
﻿﻿

﻿﻿
﻿﻿

﻿﻿ My friend Harald needs lots of love and postive healing energy sent his way right now. He is in a hospital in upstate New York. He has a brain tumor which has not responded to his six weeks of chemotherapy and radation; it has only grown (Harald referred to his treatments as "The Hair Loss Clinic). He is now beginning a Harvard Medical School trial on a new kind of Chemo. Even during this really hard time, his sense of humor is well in tact. At the beginning of his treatments, right after his diagnosis, I had called him on the phone.